COVID-19 (Sampling and Diagnostics)

Project Lead(s)

Senior Research Fellow
Project Background
The rapid spread of the novel coronavirus disease, COVID-19, necessitates early detection of infected persons as part of strategies to identify and control community transmission. Testing for COVID-19 remain important especially for frontline workers, other high-risk groups and travellers. Although testing methods are available there remains avenues for improving and increasing the capacity to test and detect the virus.
Objectives/Research Areas
The research areas are in two main themes:
- Exploring nose masks for non-invasive SARS-CoV-2 sampling
- Validation of low-cost Loop mediated isothermal AMPlification (LAMP) for use in low-resourced health settings
Team
Internal Collaborator(s)
Dr. Joseph H.K. Bonney, Department of Virology, NMIMR, UG
Dr. Irene Owusu Donkor, Department of Epidemiology, NMIMR, UG
Dr. John Kofi Odoom, Department of Virology, NMIMR, UG
External Collaborator(s)
Dr. Augustina Sylverken, KCCR/KNUST, Ghana
Dr. Jingzhao Song, University of Pennsylvania, USA
Funder(s)
National Research Foundation (COV19200608529373). PI. Validation and field operationalization of one- and two-stage LAMP assay for diagnosis of COVID-19 in low-resourced health facilities in Ghana (VoLCOV). (2021-2022).
Noguchi ORS Fund. (EC/P25421/03). PI. Investigating the Use of Nose Masks as Non-Invasive Sample Collection Method For COVID-19 Testing (MANISCCOT). (2021-2022).